This is the long awaited status update of James D. Ant in Catching Crooks. We have made some really great progress in the last couple of weeks and we are proud to show you everything we have created so far.

In the next couple of weeks we will be documenting everything for our graduation and after we are graduated we will focus on releasing our first beta version. It still could take a couple of months before the first beta is ready but we'll do our best to get the beta phase started as soon a possible.

What have we done so far?

I could write pages of text which describes every feature we have implemented, but that would be boring for most of you readers. Instead we will show a vew different screenshots showing some features we made.

We would also say thanks to Tippy for his creation of the buildings we used in the pre-beta version of the game.

In this screenshot James D. Ant went to one of the corners of the village. The 3d model of James D. Ant will be replaced with our own at a later stage.

 

In this screenshot you can see a working inventory system with the possibility to merge different objects. The stick could be combined with the rope and that combination itself can be combined with the hook to create a fishing rod. The merge system is designed to have an infinity level of possibilities as long as we predefine which objects could be merged together.

 

This is an example of a conversation with a NPC. The conversation system is designed to be very flexible. Conversation choices will be based on the following:

• Previous conversations with the same or even other NPC's
• Objects in the inventory
• In-game events
• The number of times a conversation has taken place
• The mood level of the NPC

Yes yes, we need to implement some more conversations in the game :-)

In this screenshot the camera system is changed so it can track the player's movements. In the town there are different triggers which will change the active camera when triggered.

This is a screenshot which shows the walk decal. If the player clicks the right mouse button this graphic will be put on the terrain for a set amount of time and the player model will try to go to the set position.

 

Here you can see the start of the game. The three guys standing across the street are the bad guys of this episodes. The 3d models will be changed at a later stage.

We still need a long way to go to make this a great game, but we are progressing in a way we just couldn't wish for when we started.

Hopefully this status update will make you as excited as we are.

Call me Sploofy, call me Ed, call me whatever you want, but this, this is me!

 

Because we want you to play our games instead of reading our manuals we need to teach you some basic gameplay features differently. At this moment we'll try to do this with the use of loading screen tips and tricks.

As much as we like to keep loading screens to a minimum, we think that it's great to see some tips while loading the game in the background.

At a later time we will be starting with beta testing. During these beta tests we will be focusing on different elements like finding bugs and usability testing. I think it's safe to say that there will be some usability issues in the game. For some of them we should really try to change the gameplay so it will be more usable, but for others it would be nearly impossible to be changed. Loading screen tips and tricks will be helpful to tackle these issues.

We are very excited about the progress we've made in the past couple of weeks. Harold is busy creating 3d models. He is using a Microsoft Kinect motion caption system to animate the main character and NPC's. Matthijs is working hard to create screen designs of everything that is going to be in the game like the main menu, the settings window, the communication wheel, a pop-up pie menu and much more.

At the programming/scripting side things are getting better every day. After struggling with a few problems it is now time to implement the game systems. As you have seen in a blogpost a few weeks ago we use an inventory system in which James can store goods he encounters on his adventure. The first version of this system is operational and is looking just like the screen design. There will be a couple of iterations in the development of this system in the near future, but the main functionality is all there. Aside from the inventory screen I've made progress with the implementation of the main menu, the pop-up pie menu (used for object selection) and even the communication wheel, which now handles simple conversations of two levels deep. Almost everything is ready to actually create the gameplay we wished for.

Note that we need all the help we can get to create this game. You can support us by donating any amount of money, buy something from our store, by subscribing to our beta tests, by subscribing to our newsletter or even by liking us on Facebook.